EliteCommander

The Cradle

For both Vreta and Rhia, it was difficult to put into words what they experienced. Vreta had taken 595’s hand, but it did not matter that he was not the one to try and take a closer look. They found themselves quite suddenly no longer experiencing the world through his body. They were only vaguely aware of time passing as their minds seemed to have been taken to a different place. Their minds connected and intermingled not only with the object, but at least for a moment, with one another as well. Vreta caught short, but intense glimpses of memory and emotion from 595, just as she did from him. It was not long before Vreta found himself in a distant, but familiar memory.

---

Vreta cast his gaze up to Throssai far above him. The gas giant was by far the most dominant object in the sky, and what a beautiful object it was. Growing up on this moon, he realized he had often taken it for granted, but after living on Rothia for so long, he was glad to be able to take in its beauty again. The swirling, multicolored clouds were like an ever-changing piece of art as storms larger than entire planets shaped the clouds. He was stood on the very edge of a section of a sheer cliff that jutted out over a vast valley. It would normally be quite a precarious position, but the reduced gravity of Syr’Jakra meant that no fall was truly dangerous. He could jump down off the cliff himself if he wanted to and land safely below, though the time required to climb back up would probably end up canceling his planned picnic.

Vreta closed his eyes and hummed when he felt the familiar, pleasant sensation of another embracing him. He had heard the footsteps behind him, but he pretended not to notice as his husband hugged him around his waist and leaned in to rest his head in the nape of his neck. They were both silent for a few moments before eventually opening their eyes to enjoy the view together.

“I can see why you love this spot so much.” Karaz commented, looking out onto a cityscape in the distance in the valley. “I always wanted to be able to travel the galaxy and see all these exotic places. You got to grow up in one of them.”

Vreta chuckled. “Well, didn’t seem that exotic as a hatchling. It was just…home. I suppose it still is, in a way.”

The pair took a moment to find a comfortable place to sit and lay out all they had brought with them. Comfortable blankets, drinks, and of course a nice meal. Karaz had handled the food, so naturally he had chosen Vreta’s favorite. He set down a cylindrical canister on the rocks, and with the press of just a few buttons, it went from preserving the meat inside to cooking it. It was cultured from a kind of alien crustacean for which Vreta had a particular taste.

Once they were settled in, Vreta could no longer contain the smile he had been holding back. “I have some, uh, good new for you, actually. You know that proposal you wanted me to bring forward? For the s-series scanners? Well, I brought it forward, managed to have a nice chat with some of the regulators, and it was accepted. In full.”

Karaz had already been smiling when Vreta started, but those last two words seemed to have him in shock. “Wait, in full, in full?”

“In full.”

In just that moment, Karaz could hardly contain his excitement. He immediately pulled him into a tight hug while nuzzling his snout against Vreta’s. “That’s far more advanced than anything I was expecting them to approve. I mean, I expected you would be able to get them to agree, but not without some modifications to the core of the sensor. The s-series has far better cellular penetration than anything I can get in the field. When we bring it to the Tindrel, not only will we be able to mark the virus’ progress, but we’ll be able to reverse the damage it’s done in survivors. By the rings, you don’t even know how many lives you’ve saved here.”

Vreta laughed and gave a few pats to Karaz’s shoulder. “Come on, we both know this was your idea. You’re the one who did the heavy lifting on writing the proposal. I just did some editing, added some flowery language, and talked up your ideas to a few of the regulators. This is your win. The whole proposal wouldn’t have even existed without you.”

“Yeah, well, you know I don’t know how to talk to those bureaucrats. Still wouldn’t have happened without you either.”

Vreta rolled his eyes. “Fine, fine, I’ll take some credit. But you know there are still conditions, right? It’s been approved for trials with Tindrel, Human, and Ulsix only. And it’s still regulated tech, so that means mandatory supervision. Not necessarily armed, but with failsafes.”

Karaz let out a deep sigh. Reality did temper his feelings somewhat, but it was still wonderful news for him. “I know. It’s still worlds better than what we’ve had to work with, I just…I wish we didn’t have to hold ourselves back so much. At least not with medical tech. What harm would it really do if they learned how to better treat the sick?”

While Karaz spoke, Vreta moved himself up alongside him and wrapped his tail around him to hold him close. “I understand how you feel, but it’s always a risk. The same core principles that govern those scanners would also make great sensors for guided ordinance.” Vreta pointed out, though no matter how many times they had this discussion, he had never been able to change Karaz’s mind. As a doctor, when he saw people suffering and dying from preventable causes, he could not help but to feel that it was the Rothians doing something wrong by being too safe. There were many people who did not feel that Rothians were obligated to help every other less-advanced species with their own problems, but Karaz was certainly not one of them. He was the most compassionate soul that Vreta knew, which was in large part why he had become his mate.

Regardless of the caveats, Karaz was still overjoyed by the news. Though, as he started to prepare the food and wine for their picnic, there was a tinge of guilt that came across his expression. He might not have brought it up, but Vreta knew him more than well enough to notice, and he was rather bad at lying to him.

“Come on, what is it? You can tell me; I’m sure it’s not that bad.” Vreta asked.

“No, it’s not bad at all, really. It’s just…” Karaz began, rubbing the back of his neck. “My boss has been impressed with my work, actually. The Tindrel too have been approving, and they want to expand the project. They offered me the position of chief medical officer. They want me to lead the project from the captial. The, um…Tindrel capital. That is really the best place to get the best results, but, well…the gateway network isn’t really built out too well near Tindrel space yet, so…”

Vreta turned his head, looking out once again into the valley below. “...so you won’t be able to come back for a while.”

“I wouldn’t, but…don’t worry about it. I’m going to turn it down. You’ve already done so much for the project with those scanners; it will be fine without me. Someone else can take over. I don’t want to do that to you, I…” Karaz was ready to continue with his excuses, but Vreta soon interrupted him by planting his hands firmly on both of his shoulders.

“Don’t give me that. No one is going to do as good of a job as you. This is your calling, and I’m not going to have you giving it up just for me. Those people deserve you, and no one less.” Vreta said in a voice that was just as firm as his grip.

Karaz did not have an answer to give in words, but he did return the most pure smile before pulling him again into a loving embrace. As the memory faded, one could feel Vreta’s emotions turning bittersweet. As wonderful of a memory as it had been for him, it had also been the last time the two of them spent any significant time together as a couple. While they did not stop caring for one another, the paths on which their lives took them ended up pulling them in different directions, to the point where their relationship could no longer be sustained.

The Cradle

“I can…confirm we’re getting telemetry from your device.” Marae commented. Among her team, it was common for members to cross-check one another, so it was natural for her to want to check Freyr’s work as well.

Another of Marae’s team, Nera, chimed in response to Freyr’s musings. “It’s going to take time to analyze this, if we want more than just guesses. Try to get as many samples as you can. If we do not get enough, it may not be possible to translate.”

“Regardless, it’s not our priority right now. Nirann is saving everything, so we’ll be able to work on the translation at our own pace. We need to focus on keeping our team safe.” Marae suggested.

---

Once they rounded the rubble that had once been the throne, Vreta lowered his weapon and slowly approached the hatchway alongside the Agent. It did not take long for Rhia to realize that many of Vreta’s sensors were giving false readings the closer they came. At the very least, being a part of his mind meant that she was not restricted to a purely electronic sensor suite. Her connections went into his neurons, so she could feel his organic senses just like he could. Except, she could also apply her analytical capabilities to his sensory information.

Vreta moved up somewhat close to the hatchway, but certainly not close enough to touch the beam of light, nor the pool of liquid. “Sensors are a mess right now. Whatever this is, it’s putting out a ton of interference. So, what are you thinking?”

The Cradle

Vreta let out a long sigh. His instinct was to follow Marae’s advice. As much as he wanted to learn about this being, he preferred to take the cautious approach. Given the Agent’s obstructionism in the days leading up to this expedition, he had expected her to support the retreat before he did, so her to continue to press forward came as a definite surprise to him. It just figured that the one time he was hoping for obstruction, she was willing to continue. Unfortunately, there was no way he could just let her go in on her own, so he had no choice but to join her.

“They have orders to evacuate as soon as there is trouble.” Vreta responded. He caught up with her quickly, then walked forward right along with her. “Hopefully they follow them. We’ll go in together, learn what we can, then leave together.”

---

Marae had given her recommendation, so at that point, it was up to the away team on whether or not they wanted to follow it. Until then, she had this mysterious conversation to take her attention. “Maybe, but we can’t really know the source of this conversation. I find it unlikely that something accessed the object while it was here on Rothia, though I suppose we can’t be sure. Especially early in our history. But, this could also be something from long ago in the entity’s history. We came prepared with a comprehensive library of known languages, but there is nothing we have that bears any similarities to this.”

The Cradle

Vreta moved forward steadily along with 595. Following their cue, the soldiers kept close as well, weapons at the ready. The creatures flying above were still a concern, so they paid particular attention to any openings through which they might fly should they decide to attack. They would still do whatever was needed to guarantee their safety, but Vreta was still ultimately the one leading them.

“Be careful. That may not be who we want it to be.” Vreta whispered to 595.

---

Briefly, Marae turned her attention to the data Dr. Wetherall sent her. She ran a program to assist with quick analysis, but it did not take much to identify the basics of what it was: a conversation. It was an exchange of words, but not in any language that she could identify. They had brought along with them a sophisticated translation program, and plenty of reference data for it, but it was not yet identifying much beyond the fact that it was a language.

“Nera, I’m sending you a copy of some data we just uncovered. It seems to be a language, but our software can’t make sense of it. See what you can do.” Marae announced quickly to her team’s linguist. However, she did not divert her attention long from Dr. Lang. Despire Freyr’s insistence that they press forward, Marae answered back firmly. “I am going to have to disagree. Our people’s safety is paramount, and I will be giving my recommendation.”

Marae wasted no more time in contacting the away team. “Be advised, there has been some discussion, and I cannot give any guarantees that the jamming field is not physically affecting you in any way. For the sake of safety, It is my opinion that you should return to the lab until we can study the field in greater detail.

---

Vreta stumbled slightly when a tremor shook the ground. He could not see its source from his angle, but there was a column of blue light shining up from the ground just behind where the entity’s throne used to be. Though, Marae’s warning was a concern he took seriously. Vreta quickly turned his head towards 595. “What do you think?”

The Cradle

“Do you think it was the storm that collapsed this place?” Vreta commented as they moved inside the temple. It was a large, open space, though Eti was still keeping them in a tight formation. While 595 was setting up the spectrometer, Vreta knelt down and picked up a small piece of the rubble in his hand. He did not know exactly what could be gained from studying the temple, but recording in greater detail could help someone else figure out the kind of damage the building had sustained. “This place didn’t exactly seem to be poorly built last time, so it must have been quite a strong storm. That, or the stonework wasn’t the only thing holding it together.”

After a moment, Vreta stood back up and started to walk slowly towards the energy profile Freyr had mentioned. “Our host, are you, or your avatar, still here? Can you hear me?” Vreta shouted through the temple.

---

Artek tapped one claw to his cheek as he stared for a few moments in silence at one of the consoles. “Hmm, I can’t really guess at how much energy it would have taken the entity to construct it. It’s possible that it was trivial compared to teleportation, but…I can’t think of why it just wouldn’t speak through the worm, you’re right. There would had to have been something that would motivate it to want to bring them to this spot, specifically.”

As soon as Freyr had brought up the point, Marae had paused in thought herself, and Artek only strengthened her suspicions. Eventually, she interjected. “We…don’t really know much about this jamming field, do we? It is jamming our comms, but that well could be a side-effect, rather than its primary function. We should pull back the away team. My initial readings haven’t revealed anything dangerous about it, but we should study it more before we let them expose themselves to it for an extended time.”

The Cradle

With a flick of his wrist, Artek moved a screen showing the structure just in front of him. You are right about that. “These vines, they’re not just growing over the structure, they’re…becoming a part of it. Normally I would have to try to get past the plant life to learn something about a ruin, but the same rules might not apply here. The building is part of the simulation, of course, a part of the world around it. The difference between the ground, the vines, and the stonework is simply in how the code makes it appear, and there is no rule here that prevents one from becoming the other.”

Artek brought up several more images comparing areas from the previous expedition’s recording to what their away team was seeing now. He seemed no less than enthralled by observing every detail of every carving or crack in the stonework. “Ruins, historic buildings, their form and structure usually tells many stories about what it took to bring them into existence. Especially for large, intricate buildings like this, it normally takes not just a person, or a team, but a society to create them. It takes people with both the means to construct, and a reason to want to build. It takes many different people with different capabilities, personalities, and goals. A lot of moving parts to consider. The story of a building is the story of the client or organization that ordered its construction, the architect who has to balance their artistic vision with the limitations of technology, time, and budget. It is the story of the workers and craftsmen who build it, and of the artists whose self-expression is carved into the stone through the lens of the desires of the client who commissioned the work. That is the story I usually try to uncover, but this…this may be different.”

Pausing a moment, Artek pushed away most of the images, save for one. He brought Freyr’s attention to the most complete image they had of the structure, as it was during the first team’s encounter. “What do you notice about the structure in this picture? I’ll tell you, it’s in great condition. Pristine, actually. Like it had just been built. For a building of this size, construction through normal means would take many years for the type of civilization we have witnessed in this simulation, and it would be quite an unlikely coincidence for it to just happened to have been finished shortly before we arrived. The logical assumption, then, is that it was the entity itself that created it. Not through mining and carving stone, but through manipulating its own power over the simulation. If that is true, and I will say ‘if’, since I cannot give guarantees, but if it is, then that means the story of this structure is the story of the entity itself. It did not have to worry about budget, paying workers, or…physics, for that matter. The entity is the architect, is the builder, is the artist, and so on. Even if it barely put any thought into what it was making, it is still a creation of its mind and a reflection of its own self-expression. What we can learn just from this building tells a story about the mind of this entity we are trying to understand.”

Marae, through it all, simply grinned and allowed Artek to talk. She had her own task in front of her. She continued tweaking her program in an attempt to make it as subtle as possible to avoid tripping failsafes, though she always made sure to keep a stable build on-hand and ready, in case the away team needed it.

The Cradle

Vreta gripped his rifle tightly, his eyes scanning the area ahead of him. While the structure had not been reduced completely to rubble, it was still in much worse shape than the recordings he had seen. Unless this was a particularly elaborate ruse, it did seem like the entity was genuinely at risk. Whatever the truth might be, they needed to play this very carefully, not only for their own sakes, but fore the sake of the mission as a whole.

The soldiers, naturally, had their attention more on the living parts of the simulation. Eti herself was focused on the path ahead, while the others she directed to cover other angles. “Mar, eyes to the sky. Kelest, you’re on ground-level threats. This energy field is interfering with comms. Seems like we can still communicate over short distances, but I don’t want to risk a blackout at a critical moment, so we’ll need to do things analogue. If something attacks by surprise, shoot first and defend yourselves. Same goes for you two. I know you’re both trained, so I’m not expecting to have to pamper you like hatchlings.” She said in an even, commanding tone.

Before the group could move too close to the structure, Marae quickly interrupted. “Wait! Hold on just a…moment. I’m getting something through the spectrometer just under the surface ahead. Hard to say what it is, exactly, just from this data. Still, probably best just to go around, to be safe. Here, let me plot you out a route to avoid the anomalies.”

With a brief acknowledgement, Eti changed her course, then continued to press ahead. Since Rhia was taking care of watching for danger, Vreta focused more on the mission itself. “I don’t like this. If there are actually traps, then we clearly would not be welcome here. Perhaps we should call this off?”

The Cradle

Lacking an actual explanation from 595, Vreta took a moment to figure out what to do with the cable. Rhia performed a quick scan, then adapted a compatible input on his suit. Though, any data sent back to the rig was first filtered by her to cleanse it of anything they might not want to share. With a nod from Vreta, Eti started to lead the way towards the ruins of the structure.

Vreta followed the plan closely. He kept up a slow, steady pace and took particular caution not to allow the cables to become caught on anything. The other two members of Eti’s team moved close on either side of himself and 595, trailing just slightly behind them. Like Rareth, the three of them towered over the pair, and they had far more than just their eyes with which to keep watch on their surroundings.

High above them, the swarm of creatures were starting to fly more erratically. The rig had started to shine its lights to the sky and deploy ultrasonic countermeasures. Vreta even had to tune his own echolocation sensors to use a much different frequency for them to continue functioning. However, with the measures that they were using, none of the creatures seemed to be flying any closer to the group, even as they moved farther from the rig. With all that was disrupting their senses, it seemed that they had not actually been noticed. At least, not yet. They still had to complete their objective, and make the walk all the way back.

The Cradle

The Agent was certainly a curious one, but Vreta saw through the facade she tried to put forward. Friendliness, levity, it was a mask she wore over her true self. In many cases, that was exactly what Vreta himself did through the course of his missions, so it was easy to recognize his own tricks. Of course, it would be naive to expect that she could not see the same in him. Indeed, he supposed it was funny, in a way, that they were both obligated to continue to lie to one another in ways that both of them were aware were entirely ineffective.


After a few minutes, the loading ramp lowered to allow them outside, once Marae was able to finish her work. Vreta deployed his helmet, then stepped out just behind the Agent. Rhia monitored every sensor available to him to keep watch for danger. The flying creatures were still certainly present, but as of yet, they were not making any moves to approach the rig. Once the pair were outside, Eti and her team jumped down from the walkways far above to join them. Their suits’ thrusters slowed their falls to a safe descent to set them down gently, and without too much noise.

“We should make this as quick as we can. Your concerns about the creatures are valid. I will take point, and my team will form up around you. Stay between us as we move.” Eti instructed.

The Cradle

Marae tilted her head when she looked at Freyr. “A physical cable, that…I’ll be honest, that’s not the kind of solution I would usually think of.” She admitted. Given that Rothians had the technology to solve a great many of their society’s problems, low-tech solutions did often go under their radar. It took her a moment to consider the logistics of Freyr’s suggestion, but she did end up giving a hesitant nod. “I…think that will work. Potentially. It depends on if the jamming field is designed to be able to block a signal through a wire. And provided we actually have that kind of cable. It will need to be pretty long, and I certainly didn’t requisition it. If not, we can request it be sent in, though I do still suggest waiting on me to finish this program. Just a few more minutes. We’ll want to have it as a backup, in case something goes wrong with the cable.”

Meanwhile, Vreta followed after the Agent, only mildly groaning at her attitude. He squeezed his way through the rig’s passages down to the loading bay. He was already fully equipped, so he had no reason to delay. The Rothians were taking every precaution they could for this mission; even the scientists were equipped in some measure of combat armor. Vreta’s armor was of mostly the same quality as that of Eti’s team, just fitted to his smaller stature. His shield strength was not quite as good, since the power source and emitters were smaller, but it was not a great difference. He was armed with a standard issue Rothian rifle, a sidearm magnetized to the holster on his thigh, and a plasma sword holstered on his hip. He and the Agent still had to wait for their transit station to be prepared, so they simply stood across from one another in the loading bay for the moment.

“We’re in the loading bay at the moment. Do you want to join us with your team, Eti?” Vreta asked.

“My team is still up top. We’ll join you on the ground once you’re outside.” She answered.

After a few moments, Vreta finally looked up from checking his rifle to make eye contact with 595. “So, what do you expect us to find? Your Institute is supposed to know quite a lot about the Cradle, yes? Is there anything in the Cradle that might be similar to this entity?”